[Eugen Rehfish--pioneer of modern urodynamics]

Eugen Rehfisch published two important articles on vesical sphincter function and innervation of the bladder in the Archives of Pathologic Anatomy, Physiology and Clinical Medicine edited by R. Virchow in 1897 and 1900. A figure from his first urodynamic article (1897) became well known in the urodynamic literature. It shows the first simultaneous registration of vesical pressure and urinary volume in a human. Eugen Rehfisch's ingenious experimental design for examining the process of micturition has remained to this day. For this reason, the board of the Forum Urodynamicum, a registered society in Germany, named its innovation prize donated by the Pfizer company after Eugen Rehfisch. Eugen Rehfisch was born in Kempen/Posen on March 6 1862. He studied at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and at the Bavarian Julius Maximilian University in Wurzburg. From approximately 1889, he worked as a physician in Berlin and was a co-worker of Leopold Casper (1859-1959) for some time. He performed his important urodynamic studies at the Institute of Physiology of the Friedrich Wilhelms University between 1896 and 1900. After this, he turned to cardiology. Besides articles on urology, he published papers on psychiatry and cardiology. He was an active member of medical societies in Berlin and was awarded the title of a professor. Eugen Rehfisch died on October 7, 1937 in Berlin. His grave is in the cemetery of the Jewish congregation in Berlin Weissensee. The Eugen Rehfisch innovation prize is an expression of our admiration.